Today, many complex structures, such as aircraft, spacecraft, automobiles, and the like, are made by assembling individual components. Those assembled materials include a significantly large number of interconnected components. The interconnected components of complex structures are connected together at joints. The joints of complex structures are traditionally formed using fasteners and weldments.
To improve the characteristics of joints, gaps between components are filled or shimmed to reduce the stresses and other forces experienced by the fasteners, weldments, and components of the structures. However, exact component geometries can vary making it difficult to fit a gap with prebuilt shims and fillers.